Asiana Airlines to Sue TV Station Over False, Racist Pilot Names

The South Korean airline, with a flight that crashed in San Francisco on July 6, claims that the city's KTVU ruined the airline's reputation when they released four bogus and "racially discriminatory" pilot names on Friday. Na Chul-hee, airlines spokesperson, said Asiana plans to file a defamation claim against the station, but not against the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), who confirmed the pilot's names. "It was the [TV station's] report that resulted in damaging the company's image," he said.

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After the report aired, the station apologized for misidentifying the pilots and making several mistakes when gathering the information. Two of the names read, "Sum Ting Wong" and "Wi Tu Lo," which sound like, "Something Wrong" and "We Too Low." Anchor Frank Somerville said the station didn't say the names out loud before reading them on air. Plus, when they confirmed the names with the NTSB, they never asked the person on the phone for their position with the agency, and it turned out that person was an intern.

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The NTSB issued an apology
on the day the names were read, stating, "a summer intern acted outside the scope of his authority when he erroneously confirmed the names of the flight crew on the aircraft." They continued on to say that the agency doesn't give news stations the names of people involved in a transportation accident. The intern, subsequently, was fired, though neither the station nor the agency can confirm who actually coined the names.

What do you think about KTVU reading these made-up, offensive names on air? Share your thoughts in the comments below.